Log--Who knows what darkness lurks in the Hearts of Men?

[deadlyvu]

Who: Akane Kurashiki, Ira (Riku Replica), Lydia Deetz, and Twilight Sparkle
Where: Aquares Ixen's Library
When: First-week of November? (Shouldn't take long.)
What: Cid has set the heroes the task of researching these 'shadows' the Sage mentioned. Time to hit the books!
Warnings: Mentions of darker-impulses, discussions of psychology,



Lydia hadn't been the only one excited with the assignment Cid gave them. Even her enthusiasm paled compared to Twilight's though, and once everyone agreed on a time they converged on the Library. Some of the research would be easier to do alone, but they should at least start by working together and coordinating, so they didn't do double the work right? Just like a school project.

Comments

Let's get started, shall we?

[acceptedoblivion]

Lydia and Twilight weren't the only ones who had at least a vague interest. As he'd been one of those who'd vocally volunteered in the Sage's presence, Ira was very keen on finding out as much as he could about what would be their opponents in the near future. That's why he immediately heads for the reference section of the library whether or not the others follow or not. It was the best place to look up just what books the library had, right?

"--know I've heard it somewhere," he muttered under his breath, somehow feeling like he should be relatively quiet inside this place. Those that knew him would probably realize just why this is going to be a challenge for him.

[sesenta]

"Um...excuse me."

The owner of the voice stood just in front of the library doors, the left one quietly swinging closed behind her. Akane stood frozen on the spot, looking exceptionally uncertain about taking another step forward. Given that she'd been possessed and one of the ringleaders responsible for mudering a bunch of Heroes and turning them into zombies, she was understandably a little reserved about approaching anyone else.

At least they were in a library, so if they were going to yell at her, they would at least yell quietly.

"I was assigned the research quest as well, so...what would you like me to do?" She half-expected them to tell her to go stand in the corner and just keep out of the way, and she wouldn't have blamed them one bit. Making friends was hard enough as it was without being a psychotic murderer on top of an awkward dork.

[acceptedoblivion]

Ira paused for a moment, turning to face the voice belonged to. Ahh, right. She was one of those possessed last week, wasn't she?

"Come on," he muttered with a sigh, motioning for her to follow him. "I was going to search the reference section for more related works. Two sets of eyes'll be better than one." He didn't hesitate to offer the option. Hell, of all of them, he's probably the least likely person to judge her for some circumstance she couldn't well control.

[deadlyvu]

Lydia's vampire job meant that she was silent in her movements; Betel-po however, was not silent. Wings fluttering rapidly and then a called "Lyds! Wait up!" Followed by a hissed "Shhhh" from Lydia. A sheepish smile on her face as she caught up with Ira and the other girl.

"Sorry I'm late." Betel-Po was carrying her messenger bag, as it was clear she'd come from school. Ira received a big smile, and then Lydia turned to Akane. She sort of recognized the other, from visiting Santa. Could she be his sister? "Hi, I'm Lydia. We might've met before, by talking in letters? Are you Santa's little sister? I'm his housemate."

Nothing but welcome there.

[sesenta]

Akane was blown away. She'd expected at least a dirty look! But to be addressed by Lydia in such a warm manner, and invited by Ira to work beside him, why it was almost enough to move her to tears. Akane always was a bit of a crybaby, but while her eyes did get moist, she didn't start sobbing quite yet.

"O-oh...yes! That's very true! If these Shadows are anything at all like the ones mentioned by the philosopher from my world, I might be able to add more information to the report." The Kurashikis were practically walking encyclopedias when it came to psychology, folk stories, and paranormal science, that was for sure.

Clasping her hands together beneath her chin, she found that she was smiling at Lydia's cheerful introduction. "Yes, I remember! It's so good to meet you in person at last. Yes, he's my brother. I'm Akane. And you're Ira?" she turned to the boy. "I mean, I wouldn't want to assume, but I do have a hard time imagining your name to be 'Twilight Sparkle,' tee hee!"

[acceptedoblivion]

"Both worlds I came from had creatures called Shadows, so... same boat." he added, shaking his head. Nah, he's pretty sure the Heartless don't entirely count, but the psychelesis shadows... he wondered if they weren't these "shadows" of those he knew before. Not that anyone here would be able to answer that.

...His jaw almost drops at the name, though.

"Yeah, no. Though I've had worse names thrown at me." He said while laughing under his breath, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. Luckily he's still turned around so she doesn't see.

[im_pancake]

Aaaaand the last one late is Twilight Sparkle. She has a number of bags filled with various writing utensils and paper to work on, some of that being carried by her Moogle.

"Sorry I'm late!" Twilight called out. "I haven't done research in the longest time like this so I needed to get everything for this!"

Yes, everyone, there's a winged pony before you.

[deadlyvu]

A winged-pony would be a lot more unusual normally, but Lydia had seen Twilight in the crowd a few times. It was still neat, and she was looking forward to actually interacting with her. There would be no strange-looks from Lydia though.

"Well, you're certainly well-prepared. I think we'll be fine."

[sesenta]

Akane smiled. It seemed like everyone was really looking forward to the research. She had to admit, she much preferred this quest to the one where they had to fight forty Tonberries until the giant one showed up, and they had to defeat that one too. She'd been stabbed more times than she liked that day.

"I guess we'll be going through the reference section, then," she waved at Lydia and Twilight. "Should we share what we've got after an hour to make sure we're not duplicating the same material?"

[acceptedoblivion]

He came from a world that had talking mice before he ended up in a Tower where everyone was a soul in a wireframe jar. An alicorn was the least weird thing he's seen in ages. After waving to the last of them to show up, he nodded to Akane.

"Sounds good to me," he replied, walking off to the reference section.

[deadlyvu]

Lydia felt nominally responsible for organizing things, not that they needed much of it really. "Look and see if there's any psychology reference books too. I know in my world, there were some mentions of dealing with your shadow selves...I just can't remember who or what." They'd covered it briefly in a Science class, dealing with the different major science branches.

"Then again, if you're from Earth too, Akane, we might be thinking of the same studies." More than willing to hang back and let Ira lead the way. Gave Lydia more time to get to know Akane and Twilight Sparkle a bit more.